An assiduous person works hard to ensure that something is done properly and completely.

Someone who is capricious changes his mind repeatedly or behaves in unexpected ways; a capricious series of events follows no predictable pattern.

When one is conscientious in performing a task, one does it in a thorough and careful fashion to make sure that it is completely done.

Something that is desultory is done in a way that is unplanned, disorganized, and without direction.

When you are diligent in completing a task, you work hard or tirelessly at it until it is complete.

When you create a diversion you cause someone to turn aside momentarily from what she is doing by distracting her.

Efficacy is the ability or power to produce an expected effect or result.

If you describe someone as exacting you mean that she or he expects other people to work very hard and carefully.

If someone is described as feckless it means that he is incompetent and lacks the determination or skill to achieve anything in life.

Fortitude is the determination or lasting courage to endure hardship or difficulty over an extended period of time.

If you describe someone as impetuous, you think that she does things quickly and rashly without first thinking carefully.

An impromptu speech is unplanned or spontaneous, and has not been practiced in any way beforehand.

When you improvise, you have to make something up on the spot since you have been surprised by an unexpected situation that has arisen.

If you act in an impulsive fashion, you tend to act without thinking about something beforehand in a way that is not predictable.

Something that is incessant continues on for quite some time without stopping.

If someone is indefatigable in doing something she never shows signs of getting tired.

An industrious student puts a lot of energy and devotion into the hard work that he does.

Something that happens on an intermittent basis happens in irregular intervals, stopping and starting at unpredictable times.

Intractable problems, situations, or people are very difficult or impossible to deal with.

If you describe someone as inveterate, you mean that she is always doing a particular thing, especially something bad, and that she is not likely to stop doing it.

Someone who is irresolute is unable to decide what to do.

Someone is considered meticulous when he or she acts with careful attention to detail.

A negligent person is one who does not complete what he says he is going to do, and so is careless or inattentive in his work.

If you describe someone as obstinate, you are critical of her because she refuses to change her mind, even when other people think she is being unreasonable.

If someone has pluck, she or he has determination and courage.

When you procrastinate doing something, you put it off or delay doing it usually because it is something unpleasant that you’d rather not do.

If someone watches or listens to something with rapt attention, she is so involved with it that she does not notice anything else.

Refractory people deliberately don’t obey someone in authority and so are difficult to deal with or control.

A feeling of resignation is one of submission, acceptance without protest, or an unresisting attitude.

Someone who is sedulous works hard and does things very carefully and thoroughly, not stopping any task until it is completely accomplished.

If you are steadfast you have a firm belief in your actions or opinions and refuse to give up or change them because you are certain that you are doing the right thing.

When you are tenacious, you do not quit until you have finished what you have started.

If you are unflagging, you do not stop at a task, and are untiring when working upon it.

If you are unrelenting in your desire to do something you stop at nothing until you have it.

A thing or person that is unremitting is persistent and enduring in what is being done.

To vacillate is to go back and forth, unable to make a firm decision.

If you waver you cannot decide between two things because you have serious doubts about which choice is better.

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Adj.

pertinacious

pur-tn-AY-shuhs

Context

Lindsey Vonn’s pertinacious attitude towards bringing home the gold in skiing made her a model for extreme determination at the last Olympics. She had practiced for many years with a pertinacious work ethic which was insistent and unyielding. Her pertinacious, firm spirit paid off as she took the gold medal in the downhill, despite having to stubbornly work through an injury that would have left others calling it quits.

Memory Hook

PreciousPertaining Anything pertaining to winning the Latin competition was very precious to Hannah; she would study and study, being pertinacious in her goal for winning it, so anything pertaining to Latin became precious to her.

Examples

Not even so vital and pertinacious a people could have built this country without the two unique institutions that guided them: the army and the big trade union organization known as Histadrut.
—TIME

We know how heinous a charge this is to bring against the clerical glory of all Celtic America, yet surely nothing but that traditional incapacity of John Bull for knowing when he is beaten, can account for the pertinacity with which “His Grace” perseveres in maintaining the position taken by him at Fordham…
—The New York Times

Word Ingredients

When one is pertinacious while performing a task, one is “inclined to thoroughly hold” onto it until it is completely done.

Word Theater

Microcosmos This little fellow pertinaciously pushes his ball, no matter what gets in the way.

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Word Constellation

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Related Words

assiduous ·

conscientious+ ·

diligent+ ·

efficacy ·

exacting ·

fortitude+ ·

incessant+ ·

indefatigable ·

industrious+ ·

intractable ·

inveterate ·

meticulous ·

obstinate ·

pluck ·

rapt ·

sedulous ·

steadfast ·

tenacious ·

unflagging ·

unrelenting+ ·

unremitting ·

capricious ·

desultory ·

diversion+ ·

feckless ·

impetuous ·

impromptu+ ·

improvise ·

impulsive+ ·

intermittent+ ·

irresolute ·

negligent+ ·

procrastinate+ ·

refractory ·

resignation+ ·

vacillate ·

waver ·

Similar sense

Opposite sense

Word Variants

pertinacity
n

→

very persistent or determined

The section lists important variants and alternate definitions of the headword. Knowing variants will often help you both remember and understand the word. Not all variants are listed - only the ones we think that are important for you to know.